SFFS 4th Annual Animation Festival

[Chris Knipp]

SAN FRANCISCOFILMSOCIETY

4TH ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL

______________________



STILL FROM WES ANDERSON'S THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX

George Clooney provides the voice of the wickedly cool Mr. Fox in a new animation featured at the London Film Festival (as was Mr. Clooney himself), which will be the opening night presentation of the SFFS's ten-feature series of international prize-winning animated films that runs from Nov 10-15 in San Francisco this year. Anderson uses classic stop-motion techniques to tell the Roald Dahl tale of a wily fox at war with greedy farmers. (SFFS's link to the Mr. Fox trailer.)

SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY 4TH ANNUAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL

The SFFS's five-day series at the Embarcadero Cinema (with events at Mezzanine and the Apple Store) aims to show the range and vigor of the animation genre. While the Wes Anderson feature is posed to be a big slick US box office draw -- but is largely a British production, American avantgardist Lawrence Jordan starts ifoff the festival with a cutout short film, Ein Traum der liebenden (A Dream of Lovers). Jordan will man a 16 mm analytic projector himself, varying frame rate and rhythm to go with a performance by local musical duo Pale Hoarse -- so the audience gets to watch the animation process, and the projection itself is a performance. Further experimental shorts by other artists will follow, and this is all part of a "kickoff celebration" held at Mezzanine, at 444 Jessie Street. Opening night at the Embarcadero features Fantastic Mr. Fox. The next day at the downtown San Francisco Apple Store Joy Mountford will give a free lecture and demonstration of the latest trends in "visionary information design."

Other main events are as follows:

The Breakdown. A series of short animations using the medium for analytic purposes to study objects, events, and relationships.

A Town Called Panic/Panique au village. (In French.) This feature-length stop-motion animation that appeared at Cannes is based on the Belgian TV series by Stephane Auber and Vincent Patar. It's a film all made up using tiny figurines to tell the story of a journey to the center of the earth where a parallel society of pointy-headed and dishonest creatures reigns. Voices of French actors Jeanne Balibar and Benoit Poelvoorde are heard. The filmmakers revel in the jerkiness of the figures in (stop) motion. (A Town Called Panic teaser.)

Walt Disney's Alice Comedies. This series from the very earliest days of Disney world (1923 and 1927) placed a real girl in an animated environment. A lecture and demonstration by Disney experts Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman made in collaboration with the new Disney Family Museum.

Super Massive Suspension: Nate Boyce vs. Amy Hicks. Another lecture-demo, exploiting the fact that the Bay Area houses some of the world's major current animators -- Pixar and Lucasfilm, Image Movers, PDI Tippett Studios and many independent animators of note.

The Best of Annecy. Ten short animations culled from this prestigious European festival.

Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai. Anime director Mamoru Musashi weaves together history and myth to provide a historical account of the development of Japanese swordsmanship in the Edo period as pioneered by Mushashi Miyamoto. Though we've seen animations used for non-fiction lately in films such as Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir, this is a new wrinkle for anime. (Mushashi trailer.)

Play It by Eye. Another compendium, this one of 17 music videos consisting of animation. Autokratz! Ladyhawke! Metallica! Paper Mountain Men!

Somewhere Where I Don't Know Where I Am This collection of shorts focuses on environments.

Metropia (Tarik Saleh) (In English.) This Swedish animated feature about a gray, dystopian world sounds like 1984 on valium. That could be good or bad. We'll find out. Also featured at the London Film Festival, like Mr. Fox. This features the voices of Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis, Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander Skarsgard, abd Sofia Helin. (Metropia teaser.)

So, this SFFS event promises to be an excellent look at what's going on in animation today, with a slight focus on the experimental and technical side and many short samplings of different artists. There's great variety here, and a wealth of talent.

The SFFS provides full information about the animation festival on their own web page of the event.